1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to generally to medical connectors for fluid transport and, more particularly to, connectors for use with implantable medical devices, such as cardiac assist devices.
2. Related Art
Cardiac assist devices are connected to a patient's vascular system to aid in or completely replace the function of pumping blood throughout a patient's body. Development of cardiac assist devices progressed from relatively bulky and intrusive external devices to completely implantable devices. In these devices, a typical connection between vascular tissue and the cardiac assist device includes a connector having a first half sutured onto the vascular tissue and a second half attached to the cardiac assist device. To join the two halves, conventional connectors typically employ a twisting engagement wherein the connector halves must first be aligned then rotated relative to each other.
Certain disadvantages with these twist-type connectors exist. For example, the mating halves may be difficult to align, resulting in a time-consuming and laborious procedure during surgery. In addition, when using an implantable cardiac assist device, the presence of blood and other fluids in the depth of a poorly visible and severely cramped surgical field results in limited maneuverability of a surgeon's hands, thereby increasing the difficulty in firmly grasping and joining the connector halves and subsequently imparting the rotative action. Further, the rotative action required for engagement of the twist-type connector may damage or twist the vascular tissue to which one half of the connector is attached or damaging the surrounding tissue. Another disadvantage with twist-type connectors is that they can come apart.
Another type of connector, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,486, which attempts to alleviate some of the disadvantages with the twist-type connector, includes two cooperating connector halves, one attached to the cardiac assist device and the other attached to the end of the vascular tissue. The connector halves are attached to each other by sliding one half in a plane relative to the other, with the plane being substantially orthogonal to blood flow.
The disadvantage of this approach when using implantable devices is that the sliding action requires much more space than may be available in the cramped surgical field. For example, to slide such a connector half relative to the other necessarily requires that the space that must be available should be about twice the amount of space as compared to the space required for the final connection. A further drawback to this technique is that the tissue surrounding the connector site may get caught between the two connector halves as they slide relative to each other.